ASL Linguistics Flashcards
7 cards from real CASLI practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 ASL Linguistics flashcards as text
Which researcher is credited with first applying linguistic analysis to ASL and demonstrating it is a true natural language?
Answer: William Stokoe
William Stokoe published 'Sign Language Structure' in 1960, the foundational study showing ASL has the full complexity of a natural human language.
In ASL, 'depiction' (formerly called 'constructed action') refers to:
Answer: Using one's own body to embody an action, entity, or concept for visual-spatial representation
Depiction in ASL involves the signer using their body to visually represent actions, entities, or spatial relationships, creating meaning through showing rather than labeling.
What phonological constraint in ASL prohibits two different handshapes from being active simultaneously unless one is dominant?
Answer: The Symmetry and Dominance Conditions
Battison's Symmetry and Dominance Conditions state that in two-handed signs, both hands must have the same handshape (symmetry) or the non-dominant hand must use an unmarked handshape (dominance).
Reduplication in ASL most commonly marks which grammatical category?
Answer: Aspect (especially continuative or iterative aspect)
Reduplication—repeating a sign's movement—typically marks aspectual meaning in ASL, such as indicating a habitual or ongoing action.
The concept of 'signing space' in ASL refers to:
Answer: The three-dimensional area in front of the signer's body used grammatically to establish referents and relations
Signing space is the grammaticalized spatial field in front of the signer where loci are assigned to referents and spatial grammar is enacted.
Which of the following is a characteristic of ASL that distinguishes it from Signed Exact English (SEE)?
Answer: ASL is a natural language with its own grammar; SEE is a manual code designed to represent English morpheme-by-morpheme
ASL is a naturally evolved language with its own distinct grammar, while SEE is an artificially constructed system created to represent English grammatical structures manually.
In ASL discourse, 'constructed dialogue' is a technique where:
Answer: The signer directly voices or signs the words/thoughts of a referent, shifting perspective to represent that character
Constructed dialogue in ASL involves the signer adopting a character's role to directly present what that character signed, said, or thought, using role shift cues.